TL;DR — Spark email for Android gets email templates to help you save time with writing frequently repeated emails. With this update, you can also add the Spark widget to your home screen and get a handy overview of your recent emails.
At Readdle, we built Spark to create the best email experience for professionals and their teams. Millions of people worldwide use Spark to save time on email and take control of their inboxes.
This spring, Spark made its way to Android to help even more people love email again and reach Inbox Zero for the first time. Since then, our team has focused on achieving feature parity across iOS and Android versions of Spark to make sure you have the same premium experience on all platforms.
Today, we’re excited to bring the much-anticipated templates feature, along with home screen widgets, and batch swipes.
Update Spark for free, and let’s see what’s new!
Email templates for you and your team
Chances are good you often send repeating emails like team updates, reports, client quotes, replies to typical requests, etc. In most cases, the message remains the same while you only need to change some details, like names or numeric values. Writing the same email over and over again is tedious, and that’s not how modern email should work.
To help you save time with writing similar emails, Spark has introduced email templates. You can write an email once, add placeholders for names, numbers, and other data, and reuse the template whenever needed to save time. Much loved by our iOS and Mac users, this feature is finally available on Android.
To add a template in Spark, navigate to the app Settings > Templates, tap Create New Template and write your text. Spark offers two types of placeholders for your templates:
- Blue placeholders for your or your recipient’s names. Spark populates them automatically when you send an email.
- Orange placeholders are custom placeholders which you should fill in before hitting “Send.” Use them for all kinds of information you need to add: Numbers, dates, names of products, etc.
Templates sync across all your devices, so if you’ve previously created some templates on Mac or iOS, they’ll show up in Spark for Android and vice versa. For example, you can compose a comprehensive template on your work Mac and then send it from your Android phone while you’re on the go.
Shared templates for teams
Spark lets you share templates across your team, so everyone can use them whenever needed. This is especially beneficial for FAQs, replies to common requests from clients, or simple reports.
Let’s say you’re an app developer, and users often email you asking about an educational discount for your software. Instead of writing the instructions to get a discount over and over again, create a shared template in Spark. Now, all your teammates can reply to such requests in seconds, ensuring that client communication is consistent across the whole team.
We believe team collaboration should be smooth and effortless: That’s why your team’s templates sync across all devices. When you add a template on Android, your colleagues can instantly access it on their iPhones or Macs and vice versa. With the free plan in Spark, you can have up to 5 shared templates per team.
To learn more about using templates, check this handy guide.
Home screen widgets
You can now add a Spark widget to your home screen to see the number of unread emails or scroll through the latest messages in your inbox, without even launching the app. To add a widget, long tap on an empty place on your home screen, select Widgets, and find Spark on the list.
There are two different widgets you can choose from:
- A compact widget shows the number of unread emails from different categories (Personal, Newsletters, and Newsletters). It also lets you quickly compose an email or search through your inbox right from the home screen.
- A bigger widget offers the list of your latest emails, so you can quickly overview what’s in your inbox. While adding a widget, you can select the email accounts or types of emails you’d like to see. Just like a more compact version, this widget also lets you write an email or use the smart search.
Widgets adapt to the theme you set in Spark, so if you’re a Dark Mode fan, the Spark widget on your home screen will feel right at home.
App shortcuts
Spark now supports app shortcuts to help you save time and access the most frequently used folders right from the home screen. App shortcuts let you quickly compose an email or open Pins, Drafts, Archive, and other folders. This is a great way to save yourself a couple of taps and become more productive.
Long tap on the Spark icon to see all the available shortcuts. You can launch them right from this menu or drag a shortcut to add it to your home screen. You can customize your list of shortcuts under Spark Settings > Personalization > Shortcuts.
Batch swipes
Spark has always offered customizable swipe gestures to help you power through your inbox. Today’s update introduces batch swipes which let you perform actions on all emails from the current folder or email card with a single gesture. This is a great way to quickly delete all your newsletters or move all emails from one folder to another. Just scroll to the bottom of the email list, and you’ll see an option to swipe all your emails.
Spark lets you add up to four swipe actions (Mark as Read, Move, Archive, Pin, Delete, etc.) which you can customize under Settings > Personalization > Swipes.
We’re eager to hear your feedback on this update — feel free to share your thoughts in the comments! There are more exciting new features to come, so make sure to follow us @SparkMailApp on Twitter and stay tuned.
Get Spark from Google Play and love your email again!
Maria Henyk 
